Gaius Rabirius

Gaius Rabirius was a senator during the Roman Republic who lived in 63 BC. Was defended by Marcus Tullius Cicero in a surviving speech ( Pro Rabirio perduellionis reo ).

Rabirius was originally a knight and owned estates in Campania and Apulia . He took in 100 BC In the suppression of the revolt of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus , in which the tribune was killed. He was accepted into the Senate and served under Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo in the alliance war .

Almost forty years after the death of Saturninus, Titus Labienus (whose uncle had lost his life as a follower of Saturninus) was persuaded by Gaius Julius Caesar to charge Rabirius for involvement in this murder - Caesar's aim was to warn the Senate to avoid himself to keep away from popular movements in order to uphold popular sovereignty and the inviolability of the tribunes. The outdated indictment by perduellio was revived and the case was tried before Gaius and Lucius Iulius Caesar as specially appointed plenipotentiary ( duoviri perduellionis ). After Rabirius had been convicted without evidence on the part of the prosecution ( inquisitio ), the accused made use of his right of appeal and turned to the people. The popular assembly comitia centuriata , responsible for such crimes , was about to confirm the decision when Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, as presiding praetor on the Ianiculum, took down the military flag, which meant the dissolution of the assembly: Caesar had achieved his goal, and the process was followed dropped.

His nephew Gaius Rabirius Postumus was born in 54 BC. BC also defended by Cicero.

swell

Cicero, Pro Rabirio perduellionis reo
Cassius Dio , 37, 26-38

literature

Hans Georg Gundel : Rabirius 2. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 4, Stuttgart 1972, column 1328.
Friedrich von der Mühll : Rabirius 5 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IA, 1, Stuttgart 1914, column 24 f.
H. Putsche: On the genus judicii of Cicero's speech per C. Rabirio (Jena, 1881)
Otto Schulthess : The Trial of C. Rabirius (Frauenfeld, 1891)
Adolf Primmer : The persuasion strategy in Cicero's speech pro C. Rabirio (Vienna, 1985). Therein more precise reconstruction of the process flow.

Remarks

^ Adolf Primmer: The persuasion strategy in Cicero's speech per C. Rabirio . In: Austrian Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): Meeting reports of the philosophical-historical class . tape 459 . Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7001-0661-0 , p. 11 .

personal data
SURNAME	Rabirius, Gaius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	roman senator
DATE OF BIRTH	2nd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	1st century BC Chr.

[1] Adolf Primmer: The persuasion strategy in Cicero's speech per C. Rabirio . In: Austrian Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): Meeting reports of the philosophical-historical class . tape 459 . Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7001-0661-0 , p. 11 .